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Give us a break

All rapid responses

Rapid responses are electronic letters to the editor. They enable our users to debate issues raised in articles published on thebmj.com. Although a selection of rapid responses will be included online and in print as readers' letters, their first appearance online means that they are published articles. If you need the url (web address) of an individual response, perhaps for citation purposes, simply click on the response headline and copy the url from the browser window. Letters are indexed in PubMed.

I read with great interest the Editorial, ‘’Give Us a Break’’ by Cat Chatfield and Abi Rimmer. I also enjoyed reading, ‘’Looking after ourselves at work: The importance of being hydrated and fed’’ by Peter A Brennan et al, ‘’The future of doctors’ messes’’ by Abi Rimmer, ‘’Dissecting resilience’’ by Clare Gerada and ‘’Burnout among doctors’’ by Jane B Lemaire & Jean E Wallace. A review of these articles and my personal experience being a junior doctor on the front lines, resonates the same point that ‘’Timely breaks whilst on duty optimize performance and keep the morale of the workforce high’’.

In their editorial, Cat and Abi have asked some questions at the start of the article and I am afraid the answer to these questions will be a ‘Big Yes’ from most of the junior doctors working in the healthcare. I have had shifts consisting of long hours where I have not had a chance to take a toilet break or optimally hydrate myself, let alone feed myself. I am quite sure if somebody took my blood at the end of these shifts and analysed my kidney function, they would have found a degree of ‘‘Acute Kidney Injury’’. But most junior doctors for a long time have learnt to live with this reality and what we do is "Keep Calm and Carry On" to provide the best possible care to our patients.

Competing interests:
No competing interests

09 February 2019

Bilal Haider Malik

Higher Specialist Trainee in Geriatric Medicine and General Internal Medicine